1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile terminals and, more particularly, to a list search method for a mobile terminal wherein a user can quickly search a list of items to find and execute a desired item.
2. Description of the Related Art
With rapid advances in communication technologies, an advanced mobile terminal can support not only conventional call and short message processing but also various supplementary functions related to, for example, video telephony, electronic scheduling, storage of audio and video data, Internet browsing, entertainment, and digital content replay.
To select on of the functions, various lists of list items associated with, for example, digital content are used in a mobile terminal. To select a desired list item in a particular list, the user may have to scroll up and down the screen using up and down direction keys until the cursor is placed on the desired list item.
In a conventional list search method, whenever a direction key is pressed, the cursor moves to the next item in the corresponding direction. When a direction key is kept continuously pressed, the cursor repeatedly moves in the corresponding direction until the direction key is released.
However, in a conventional list search method, if a large number of list items are contained in a list and a list item to be found is present at the end of the list, the user is inconvenienced by having to keep the down arrow key pressed until the cursor moves to the end of the list. In addition, a significant period of time may be required for the user to find a desired list item in a long list.